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After execution of the 1996 amendment to the 1994 plan for
settlement, the children entered into intense negotiations
regarding the particular assets that each child wanted their
parents to transfer to a family limited partnership in which such
child, as well as each of their parents, would hold a partnership
interest.
Between the last six months of 1995 and April 1997, Mr.
Merline met with Mr. Stone approximately a dozen times to discuss
the use of family limited partnerships, the status of the chil-
dren’s negotiations, and why each child had an interest in
certain of the respective assets of Mr. Stone and Ms. Stone.
Around April 1996, Mr. Stone and Ms. Stone decided to proceed
with forming five family limited partnerships. To that end, at
Mr. Stone’s request, Mr. Merline drafted five partnership agree-
ments (draft partnership agreements) and circulated those draft
partnership agreements among Mr. Stone, Ms. Stone, the children,
and their respective attorneys. The children and their respec-
tive attorneys, inter alia, made comments on the draft partner-
ship agreements that Mr. Merline had sent them and suggested
changes to those agreements. The primary reason for the changes
suggested by the children to the draft partnership agreements was
the desire of the children to ensure that their parents, and in
particular Mr. Stone, would not be unduly influenced by anyone to
act in a manner inconsistent with each child’s interest in
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